Tasting whisky
29 Jan 2008
This weekend was filled with heavy alcohol, since I went to a whisky tasting. We only drank a ‘wee dram’ (2,5 cl) at a time, with some bread and water in between so we remained sober enough to listen to our sympathetic whisky expert who told us about malt, barrels and distilling.
After preparing our palet with a blended whisky (irrelevant which one, real whiskies buffs never talk about anything that’s not single malt) we got to experience 5 single malts:
Whisky #1: Arran – which was the cheapest of the lot, not bad but not too special
Whisky #2: Ben Nevis – I liked this one more, had more of a sherry touch, as I recall.
Whisky #3: Balvenie – this tasted like a girl’s whisky. Quite a disappaointment after the previous one. Doublewood = the whisky was kept in ex-bourbon barrels for most of the 12 years, and was then transferred to ex-sherry barrels to ‘finish it off’. Ex-sherry barrels give a much nicer taste (see, we were still sober when that was explained).
Whisky #4: Glenfarclas – this one was my favourite. Definitely sherry-like, smelled really nice.
Whisky #5: Classic of Islay – this one smelled like a barbecue. The malted barley was dried with peat (‘turf’) and by God, did you smell it. It went great with some sliced meat, though.
In all, a pleasant experience. I might spend the 50€ one day to get me a bottle of Glenfarcas.
